


Sum of Two

by mirrorfade



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: M/M, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-15
Updated: 2012-07-15
Packaged: 2017-11-10 00:30:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirrorfade/pseuds/mirrorfade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Avatar Korra isn't the only threat to the Equalists. Or, Lieu/Amon from an outside perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sum of Two

**Author's Note:**

> This is my idea for doing an outside POV of Amon and Lieu. And the thought that if the Equalists were the protagonists of the show, they’d have their own villains besides the Avatar and her friends. 
> 
> Then this happened.

It’s really quite easy, in the end. The plan is thus: get caught. Then turn the tables. Burn a few Equalists and hang some more from lampposts. Leave them twitching for their comrades to find. Make a _statement_. Rae and Kin are in the mercenary business. They do warnings and violence. It’s a tad cheaper than war. Just as effective, though. 

People are all about war these days. 

Rae and Kin sell themselves on professionalism. That, and a simple willingness to do what they’re told. To the letter. 

Rae’s in it for the fight. He’s been beaten before, but not lately. Not for years. 

Not since they kicked him out of the army. 

His wife is in it for the thrill. She doesn’t feel much these days, she told him once. It’s only enough when the earth trembles under her bare feet. She was destined to level cities, but the wars have all ended. There’s nothing left to raze. Rae touches her strong shoulder and smiles. He knows the feeling. The world doesn’t feel right unless it’s burning. 

**

They come from a cold place, Rae and Kin. They met as kids, lost each other in the army, and met up again later getting their discharge papers. Kin broke her captain’s face over fifty yuans and Rae made the mistake of going crazy. They bonded over shared inequities. Later on they found the mercenary business. Found they were good at it. 

Found money in it, too. 

Not that money was ever the _point_ , but it helped. Paid for the opal that Rae carved the engagement necklace out of. Neither of them were water tribe, but it was better than their other family customs. 

Kin gave him a blank look when he presented it to her, bangs over her face and gold eyes unreadable. “You want me to marry you.”

Rae smiled with his teeth. “We’re perfect together.”

“I don’t like men,” she told him, sharply. 

Rae huffed. “I know _that_.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. 

“You complete me. Everything I am is better with you.”

**

She says yes, in the end. And Rae’s world makes a little more sense because of it. 

**

It’s because of Kin that Rae endures. She’s his stone, his best and only friend. The sister he never had, the wife he barely deserves. 

He doesn’t mind her lovers. They look quite beautiful together after all, women from all nations that fit perfectly into his wife’s hands. All of them have long hair. Kin has a type. Bright eyes, long hair, and soft hands. Rae helps her pick out the flowers. He’s been told that most husbands don’t allow this sort of thing, that one’s wife isn’t supposed to go off with other women, but Rae doesn’t care. Kin is the earth under his feet. The sword in his hand, the fire in his breath. She has her lovers, but Rae has her friendship. 

And in the end, he’s the one she stands beside in battle. 

He kisses her on the cheek before he goes off to hunt Equalists. She smiles at him. “Ready?”

“Always.”

**

The Equalists are more predictable than they’d like. They hunt like any army, and like wild predators, they single out the weakest links first. It’s the logical thing. 

So Rae plays drunk and makes a scene. He’s dark enough to pass for water tribe, and a few tricks make the illusion stick. 

It takes two nights worth of collateral damage before they finally come for him. 

He fights. Lets them win. Lets them think he can’t bend with just his mouth. Lets them think that fire doesn’t love him, that it’s water he can’t live without when it’s really just his wife that completes him. Fire is a nice addition, though. 

They don’t hit the chakra in his throat. 

Of course they don’t. Rae and Kin were careful on that count. And she’s never far from his side. The ground trembles under Rae for a moment before the Equalists drag him away, and he smiles. 

Everything is going according to plan. 

**

The plan goes so well that it gets boring in the end. Rae lounges against the bars, dragging his nails up and down the metal as the rust flakes. He wonders what it feels like to bend metal. To feel the very walls around him breathe and tremble. Then he wonders if Kin will tell him. 

Perhaps later. 

They don’t try to… _equalize_ him right away. No. There’s waiting. 

Which is _boring_. Rae snaps his teeth at the guards who come too close, eyes unreadable behind those bright goggles. 

Some of them are just kids, really. Rae leers at them and makes a note to avoid the little ones. He and Kin don’t kill children. 

One has to have rules, in the end. 

It takes almost three hours before they finally make time for him. Rae supposes a drunken waterbender doesn’t rate high on the list of threats. It’s been growing for weeks now, that list, along with the stunts. Eventually something with give and people will die. Badly. Burnt to death and hanging from ropes, as it happens. But that’s how war works. Rae knows. His grandparents set out to burn the world with the Phoenix King. It wasn’t that long ago. 

**

It’s the skinny one who comes for him. The Lieutenant. He’s on the list. 

The list is quite long now. 

Rae leers at him from behind the bars. “What _do_ they feed you bastards here? Sawdust?”

Pale eyes don’t bother sizing him up. “Shock him.”

There’s screaming then. Rae’s. It doesn’t last very long. 

**

The problem with simple plans is that, inevitably, they go wrong. 

Rae doesn’t handle boredom well. Or getting shocked. 

He _really_ doesn’t like getting shocked. Or forced down to his knees in front of a terrorist. Not that Rae has anything against terrorists, of course, but it’s the _principal_ of the thing. Also the hallucination. 

Ahem. 

Turns out Amon is not, as it happens, actually there. Nope, it’s just some little idiot in a gas mask and goggles who gets in too close. Just a little Equalist girl with sharp eyes and small hands. Small hands that she makes the mistake of threading through Rae’s hair. 

To hold him still, of course. 

He doesn’t mean to bite her fingers off, honestly. But she’s on him and he reacts, and then she’s howling and oh, that’s blood in his mouth. 

Whoops. 

Amon is not there. It’s just a bunch of foot soldiers and the skinny lieutenant. Rae considers his mistake, then decides to cut his losses. 

Pity about the plan. It goes up in flames when Rae lunges. He can’t use his hands to bend, but he can damn sure fight and he can spit fire like the dragon he took his nickname from. 

There are no dragons anymore. They died in the old world. 

But in the new world? 

Well, it’s a lovely place. Rae sets it on fire as he laughs. 

**

He doesn’t kill them, in the end. Mostly because they almost manage to take him down, which hasn’t happened in almost six years. That, and they’re kids. Rae jerks their gas masks off one at a time and feels his headache deepen with each revealed face. 

“Bloody fucking _spirits_ ,” he hisses. 

Kids. Just a bunch of stupid kids. 

Stupid kids who almost took him out, granted – that girl in the corner broke some of his ribs, the one with the scarred face has a good kick, and the boy with the earrings knows how to use those bolos – but still kids in the end. And Rae does a lot of things, but he doesn’t kill kids. 

Ever.

The only one old enough to earn a killing is the Lieutenant. Rae eyes him, then grits his teeth. 

Nah. 

**

Rae drags the Lieutenant off, mostly because he’d feel bad about slapping one of the kids awake. But there are questions, and Rae’s employer would like answers, thank you very much. Professionals have to provide _something_ , even if it isn’t bodies. So Rae does what he’s quite good at, and slaps the man awake. 

It takes a bit. Then the fucker’s up and snarling, kicking. 

Rae does the simple thing and sits on him. “Look,” he says, conversationally, “I outweigh you by a _lot_ , Twiggy. So you’re not going anywhere. You keep squirming and my wife’s gonna get ideas.”

Amusing ones, in all likelihood. 

The man glares. 

Rae smiles. “Where’s your boss at, huh?”

“You won’t get close enough.”

“Got close enough to you, didn’t I?” Rae leans in close, watching the Lieutenant stiffen. Yay, score one for intimidation. He doesn’t ask for the man’s name, doesn’t really need to know it for this. “I really am sorry about that kid. You can sew ‘em back on, right? Her fingers, I mean.”

“ _You_ —”

“Unprofessional, I know. I get it.” Rae holds up his hands. “Guilty here. Look, can I be honest? I feel like being honest. You down with honesty?”

The glare returns. 

Excellent. Rae smiles widely. “Yay. Okay. Honest version. I’m a firebender. You’re an Equalist. Kinda like cats and spiderrats, yeah? And I’m a professional. Bossman has questions. You look like the answer guy. I need to burn you, mister? Because I’m down with burning you. It’s my thing.”

Silence. Contemplation. Rae knows this part. He waits. 

It doesn’t take long. Less than a minute. Then the Lieutenant looks away. Sets his jaw and doesn’t say a word. 

Yeah, he’s not gonna break that easily. 

Shame. 

Rae sighs. “Damn. Now you’re gonna match your boss.”

Well. They say scars are in this season. 

**

Fun fact: skin bubbles before it pops.

**

A stun baton to the back of the skull later, and Rae decides to reconsider his position on hurting kids. Or crippling them, at least. Because this is not his day at all. He’s been knocked unconscious _three times_ already and on top of that, he had to fake being drunk. Couldn’t even do it for real. 

Kin saves him. Comes out silently from the walls – metal walls, hah – and drags him back into the shadows with her. When Rae comes back to the world of the living, she’s crouched in the dark waiting, eyes closed as she listens to the earth. The metal all around them. It might as well be alive to her. 

Rae smiles at her boots. “You’re beautiful.”

From her ankles up to her knees, and beyond. She prods him with her steel-toed boot. “Change of plans?”

“Kids.”

“Ah.” She’s quiet for a moment, working it over in her head. Considering what he’s done and what she’s going to do because of it. Then she shakes her head just once, ponytail swaying. “They’re younger than expected.”

“Too young.”

“Yeah.”

Rae sighs. “Bossman’s gonna be _pissed_.”

“Maybe not.”

“No?”

She taps the wall. “Up for standing?”

“Anything for you.”

“Come take a look.”

Rae wiggles his fingers at her. “Help me up?”

Like the best earthbenders, Kin has strong hands, stronger legs, and a solid stance. She hauls him up easily. Rae wraps his arms around her waist, nuzzling her armored shoulder. And because she’s perfect, she lets him. There’s perfume in her hair, ash and crumbled stone. Lovely. 

Kin points to the wall, and the peephole she’s made. “Quiet now.”

Rae learns forward obediently. 

The Equalists have a few things going for them. The tunnels under the city, for one thing. They’re too vast for the police to patrol, and most were installed early on, before the technology started advancing at a uniform rate. As such, a lot of them were abandoned. It’s a good hiding place. 

Kin’s peephole overlooks a small room, lined with maps and weapons and papers lined with the designs for more weapons. Two men are at the desk; one sitting, the other standing tall. 

And masked. 

Hmm. So that’s the boss. 

The Lieutenant is tight-faced, eyes lowered. Making some attempt at stoicism. His face is red where Rae hit him. Blistered white where the fire came. It’s not much. Nothing that will scar exactly’ Rae never got that far. But the blisters are a prelude and they could have lingered. Rae placed them carefully, with the tips of his fingers. Behind the ears, on the throat, on the joints of the shoulder. Pain was the point back then, even if he never finished it. Amon’s hand traces the mark carefully, like he’s memorizing what was done and what scars might have been. There are burns, but there could have been much worse. 

Sometimes it’s just a matter of timing with these things. 

“I am _fine_ ,” the Lieutenant says stiffly.

Too stiffly. 

_Liar_ , Rae doesn’t say. He feels a small twinge of guilt, but only a small one. It goes away quickly. 

Amon’s hand pauses, then he grips the Lieutenant’s chin and forces his head up. Checking for further damage. He finds it on the jawline, a peppering of weeping burns. “A firebender.”

“Yes.”

There’s silence for a moment. Things build in it. Even Rae can see that, can feel the tension shifting between the two of them. The Lieutenant’s eyes are pale and tired. Spirits know what’s behind that mask of Amon’s. There are no words. Just hands. Amon’s, mostly, pressing and questioning, tracing what could have been and what has already passed. There are no scars, but there could have been death; it doesn’t take a shrewd man to realize that. Just an aware one.

The Lieutenant closes his eyes and allows the inspection. Amon’s hand rests there on his throat. Feeling the pulse.

It’s like that for a moment, a long moment. 

Then the Lieutenant’s eyes open, slowly, and Amon squeezes his hand. Just a little. 

There’s a slow shift, hands clasping, and then Amon’s attention shifts to the buttons on that heavy coat of his. The Lieutenant – who probably has a name, everyone has a name – leans back and waits. Watching. 

Amon shrugs out of his coat, but not the mask. His attention returns to his soldier, and another coat falls to the floor. 

Oh. 

_Oh._

Rae blinks. He wonders if he ought to feel dirty, watching this. Kin shrugs. “Leverage.”

So that’s what the kids are calling it these days. 

There’s movement then. Hands over skin and scars, grasping. Rae might not sleep with his wife, but he’s not an idiot; he knows how this sort of thing works. It’s not the first time he’s seen somebody pushed back and fucked on top of an old desk. Blame the army. It’s not the first time he’s seen two men go at it like they’re going to die in the morning either, trembling and gasping. Amon takes the Lieutenant not gently but carefully, deliberately, relearning every part of him until there’s no mystery left.

It’s oddly quiet, considering. 

Rae steps back before the end. Kin’s eyes are cool in the dark. 

Leverage. Right. 

“These people don’t need killing,” he murmurs. 

Kin blinks at him once. 

“They’re worth fighting. Dead things don’t fight, Kin.”

“No,” she says, after a moment. “They don’t.”

No point in wasting a good fight, is there?

They walk away into the tunnels. 

It’s not the end, not even close. But there will be no killing on their part. 

**

Rae lays down next to his wife later, wraps his arms ‘round her waist and doesn’t let go. He closes his eyes and listens to her strong heart, feels her hand squeeze his shoulder tight. This is their life and he loves her very much. He holds his wife tight and thinks of the Equalists, wondering what’s to be done about them. 

Something violent, in the end. But perhaps not yet. 

Kin is quiet for a long time. Then: “We don’t need to tell anyone.”

“About what?”

“About Amon and his Lieutenant.”

Oh. That. 

Rae shrugs. 

“We could use it against them,” Kin continues. “Make them duel us.”

“Both of them?”

“Yes.”

The idea has some appeal. Rae opens his eyes a little, then shifts to rest his head against Kin’s breast. She’s soft without her armor on, soft like a woman but dangerous like his battle-partner always is. “They’re a little like us, aren’t they?”

“A little.”

“I love you,” he says simply. “And I will always love you even if you don’t love me back.”

Kin is quiet for a moment. Her heart is strong and steady. Like always. “I love you,” she says finally, quietly, “as much as I can.”

Rae smiles into her breast. “You’re my breath. My fire.”

“You are my friend.”

“My battle-partner.”

“My earth.”

“My reason,” Rae’s smile widens. “I’ll fight them with you, Kin. The Equalists. I’ll fight them until they’re ash or they take my bending. I’ll fight the whole world with you at my side. I’ll fight with stone and fire and my fists. Are you with me?”

This time, there is no hesitation. Kin takes a deep breathe and smiles, twining her hands in his. “Always.”


End file.
